About Me

Somehow, two years have passed. And Dallin will be flying back to the states on March 26th. It has been quite the adventure! I will encourage him to add his own summary when he gets back...(Living the good life in the Philippines, Quezon City North Mission. Entered the MTC in Provo on April 4, 2012. Flew to the Philippines on Sunday, May 13, 2012. What a great adventure! And what an honor to serve the good people of the Pines!)

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

"They do this to me every year!! Why?! Doesn't anyone love me?"

Well hey hey out there everybody!!!!

I know I just barely wrote. Like really, just barely!!! But
life goes on and things have happened. SOOO. Last I wrote was Friday? Ok. Well,
honestly, not a whole bunch has happened. But it was time for the Zone Leaders
and their entire district to leave. So they all packed up. We spent a load of
time with them over the weekend. It's really crazy how fast you really come to
care about people here at the MTC. I wasn't even with those elders for 3
weeks!!! But boy will I miss those guys. It was a sad goodbye. But a good one
at the same time. They will be rock solid over there in the Philippines. It's
way cool to think that they can finally really go to work!! I'll be right
behind them!!!

Holy Moly!! FAIL. I was early last time I emailed and now
I'm late. My mistake. Happy Birthday to my dearest cousin in the world!!!!!!
You are officially an old woman. I hope it was a wonderful day!!

On Sunday we had a great devotional. The way I saw it, it
was kind of a pep talk for missionaries that were having a hard time being
here. I thought it was great!! It reinforced my idea that there is never ever
any type of reason to go home!! EVER!! Afterwards, we watched the Joseph Smith
movie. Man, the Spirit was going crazy in the room! We also watched Elder
Holland's talk on ang Aklat ni Mormon about 4 times over the last couple of
days. The Restoration is true!!!! Easily. No doubt in my mind! Love the talk,
love the movie. Life has been good!!!

Saturday night, we had another workshop on the Atonement.
Man, I like testifying in English!! It is soo much easier! It's nice to be able
to say everything that comes to your heart. But that was another amazing
experience. I love the workshops. The learning is always good and then we get
to take a minute to teach and testify about whatever we have been learning
about. I love that!! Everything is reconfirmed to you as you testify. Things
just start coming out of your mouth and your heart feels like it's on fire!! I
love it!!

Elder Hibbert and I taught one of our best lessons yet in
Tagalog yesterday. We had 5 minutes prep time. The teacher played as a recent
convert and we only had about 10-15 minutes. So we mostly just asked how things
had been going with church and how she was doing on commitments. But we were
able to say a lot more, we were able to understand a lot more, and then we had
some sweet testifying! It was a good experience.

One of my roomies has gotten pretty banged up over the last
couple of days. He had a bit of a fainting spell that caused some issues. And
then a bit of a wipe out during gym yesterday. But he's doing all right. It
just gave us the chance for some more priesthood blessings. We gave one to one
of the zone leaders right before he left too. The MTC is awesome!! I love the
fact that obviously all the Elders here have the priesthood, but that they are
also always worthy of using it. There's never a question of, um, are you able
to? Ah, it's the bomb!!

Yesterday, they opened up the field for the use of the
missionaries. Elder Mclaughlin and I went with some of the elders from the
district to play "soccer". At first glance, it almost resembled the
sport. There was a ball. And two goals. Even people! And they even used their
feet to "move" the ball. And that's about where the similarities
stop. There were about 50 elders playing at once. Maybe, about 10 of them
actually new how to play. So it was like taking 2 fields of rec league players
and throwing them together on one field, making them all bigger boys, and then
saying GOOO!! Haha, it was fun only becuase of how ridiculous it was!!! Not
quite what I'm used to. Needless to say, I think I will stay with the weights
and volleyball.

I have hit the halfway point of my time here in the MTC
(what the?!) so I was released as DL. But with the Zone Leaders leaving, they
needed someone to step up. Elder Grigg (one of my roomies) and I got the call.
I have a lot of work to do on leadership skills. There's a lot of growth to
happen. But it adds a lot of stuff to this week!! We have 17 new missionaries
coming in today and tomorrow, so we have a lot to get taken care of. AHH! But,
the Lord's on our side, so we can handle it.

This morning we got up and went to the temple. That was
marvelous, although, if I'm completely honest, I have never spent so much time
with my eyes closed during a session. OOps!! That's something I've got to work
on!

I suppose in all honesty, not a whole ton has happened. Lots
of learning and time in class. And somehow, since Friday, a lot of laundry has
appeared!!! Crazy. But that's about it!!! Sorry the email is decently void of
interesting things. But the time here is flying by. It's crazy. I'll be out of
here before I know it! Crazy thought!!

Thanks again for all the letters and packages. I have the
biggest and best support system in the world!!!